Sprint and Deutsche Telekom remain potential partners, according to Ergen. He told Bloomberg he prefers not to sell Dish’s spectrum to a company such as AT&T, although he will if there are no other alternatives. Selling the airwaves, for which Dish paid about $3 billion, would position the company with “more cash but in the same mature business it’s already in,” Ergen said.

Dish won’t partner with Verizon, even if it’s “smart business” because the largest U.S. wireless provider struck a deal to market products from rival cable companies, reports Bloomberg.

Apparently the squabble with Sprint is over the spectrum. Sprint hopes to add another 5Mhz x 2 on the PCS band, but it abuts the Dish spectrum. If Dish is forced to move 5 MHz up the band (2005-2025 MHz), then, Dish claims, it would require a long delay as standards bodies and chip companies re-tool for the unique spectrum swath.

Dish’s wireless aspirations could also be the catalyst to getting a deal to merge DirecTV and Dish approved, Ergen said. A similar proposal to merge DirecTV and Dish in 2001 was disapproved by the Department of Justice in 2002. Ten years ago, regulators blocked a deal between the largest satellite television providers for anti-competitive reasons, saying millions of rural customers would have only one choice for TV

Combining DirecTV’s 19.9 million satellite TV subscribers with Dish’s 14.1 million customers would create the largest U.S. video provider. The combined 34 million households translate into “75 million potential handset users day one” if they also become Dish wireless subscribers, Ergen said.

The 40 MHz of 2.1 GHz is the last big chunk of prime spectrum available in the United States. What are Ergen’s options?

If Ergen sells the spectrum to AT&T for $8-$10 billion, then the satellite business may continue to slowly fade.

If Ergen partners with Sprint, then profits would take years and could conflict with Softbank or Clearwire’s plans for 2.6 GHz

If Ergen partnered with DirecTV for competitive LTE phone service, he’d have to spend another $4-$6 billion to build the nationwide terrestrial infrastructure.

Of course there is another option…América Móvil. Carlos Slim runs the fourth largest mobile network in the world and owns Tracfone Wireless in the United States, along with NET10, Straight Talk, SafeLink Wireless, and SIMPLE Mobile brand names.